These are the six siblings who died in a fire at their Indiana home while their father attempted to save them.
On January 22, flames tore through a South Bend home and claimed the lives of Demetrius, 10; Davida, 9; Deontay, 5; D’Angelo, 4; and 17-month-old Faith.
Angel, 11, was airlifted to Riley Children’s Health in Indianapolis to make a recovery. On Friday, the Navarre Middle School student was taken off life support and pronounced dead.
Father David Smith, 67, sat down for an interview one day after the fire, describing his efforts to save the children after the blaze broke out.
Smith explained how he and his children were watching movies in his upstairs bedroom when one of his boys returned from the bathroom and alerted him to an suspicious odor.
Angel Smith, 11, died on Friday. She survived the blaze and was taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead later. Demetrius, 10, died at the scene
Deontay Smith, 5 (left) and Faith Smith, who was just over a year old, also died in the blaze
Davida Smith, 9 (left) and D’Angelo Smith, 4 (right) died in the fire
‘He ran back and said “Daddy I smell smoke, I think it’s a fire,”‘ Smith said.
When the 67-year-old took a look himself, he saw smoke creeping from the lower level of the home before flames shot out, forcing him back upstairs.
‘I noticed the smoke was so thick and black, you couldn’t even see nothing,’ Smith said.
He began trying to kick out windows on the second floor.
‘I was passing out and I stuck my head out the window, got me some fresh air and I tried to crawl back where the babies was at. I got part of the way and the smoke was taking all my oxygen. I dove out the window.’
Three other men joined him outside to kick the front door in, he said, but Smith was unable to enter the house due to the roaring flames.
Tosha Washington, the siblings’ older sister, said she received a phone call from Demetrius as she was heading to work.
‘I thought it was my dad…but it was my little brother Demetrius. He was like “Tosha, the house on fire,”‘ she said.
David Smith, 67, sat down for an interview with his daughter, Tosha Washington (left) one day after a house fire claimed the lives of his six other children. He says he tried to save them but couldn’t
Smith said he spotted smoke on the first floor before flames shot out at him, forcing him to return upstairs. He then began kicking windows out
When she asked where their father was, Demetrius responded that he thought he was going downstairs but may have gone out the window.
Washington says she instructed the fifth-grader to call 911 before they lost contact.
‘I kept saying “Hello?” and I looked at my phone, the phone was hung up,’ she said. ‘By the time I made it to the house, the house was in flames.’
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. Smith says he encountered prior electrical problems at home, as did the former residents who moved out in August.
An inspection report from July uncovered electrical issues throughout the home, which were previously listed as Section 8 housing. Many outlets did not work and some were burned.
The local community rallied around Smith in the aftermath of the blaze, organizing a donation drive and setting up a GoFundMe campaign
Community members left a memorial outside the blackened shell of the home and came together for a balloon release on January 28
Elijah Luciano, a neighbor and close friend of Smith’s, organized a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses.
‘A house fire has taken his beloved children…and left him lost and alone with only the clothes on his back,’ Luciano wrote on the campaign page.
‘Our hope is to raise enough money to put his babies to rest in a beautiful place.’
Two firefighters were injured in their attempts to rescue the children.
One, identified as Roy White, fell through the second floor and was hospitalized. He was able to return home and remains off duty.
Another firefighter sustained minor burns and was cleared to return to work following treatment.